New Homeownership Program on the Coast Will Benefit Thousands

A new mortgage housing program on the Coast is helping families hard hit by hurricane Katrina and the national recession get into new homes. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

The latest project to come out of the 5.4 billion dollars hurricane recovery package is the My Home My Coast program run by the Gulf Coast Renaissance Corporation. The 80 million dollar mortgage program is comprised of both hurricane recovery funds and committed funds by local banks, all in an attempt to stimulate the housing market at a time when mortgage companies are tightening lending practices. Lee Youngblood is with the Mississippi Development Authority,

“We’ve seen the mortgage situation in the country as a whole deteriorate, and that has even particularly been worse on the Coast because of the lingering Katrina effects and the costs associated with insurance and so on.”

Another issuing facing many Coast residents' chances at obtaining mortgages are credit scores that fell after many people who lost homes or jobs during Katrina started relying heavily on credit. Kim LaRosa is CEO of the Renaissance Corporation,

“So what we’ve done is we’ve partnered with these nine lenders and said what’s it going to take to keep mortgages moving, and they said a safe loan value position for the banks. Banks need safe investments in these economic times. We said we’ll provide that, we’ll back stop a second mortgage for you and give you a safe loan position.”

The program hopes to initially help 600 families in the six southern counties who make less than 120 percent of Area Median Income. Gerald Blessey, Gulf Coast Housing Director says this is going to help the mainstream of the workforce on the Coast dramatically,

“Many of the people are already here we’re bringing people home alright, but we are also have people who are renting now or doubling up, who had a home before Katrina and haven’t quite been able to get the mortgage to get a house.”

The first mortgages are expected to be approved within six months.